Tony Sly - 12 Song Program
Rating
RIYL
Joey CapeNo Use for a Name
Dashboard Confessional
Release Date
02/16/2010
Label
Fat Wreck ChordsTracklist
1. Capo, 4th Fret2. Via Munich
3. The Shortest Pier
4. Already Won
5. AM
6. Expired
7. Keira
8. Toaster in the Bathtub
9. Love, Sick Love
10. Amends
11. Second Act (End Credits)
12. Fireball
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The mixtape, remember it? It was almost always a collection of love songs, but for the nerdiest of nerdy music fans, it may have been a bit more esoteric, consisting of one’s favorite cover songs, the greatest guitar solos, or the essential live set. For fans of punk rock growing up in the 90s and early 00s, one choice was almost always the elusive “mellow” mix. The process was easy but the results were scattered at best. You could start out with some Jets to Brazil or Bad Astronaut. Next you would pick out a couple of bands that you would normally be embarrassed to listen to (The Get Up Kids or The Ataris would do the trick). After that, throw in some of your favorite older music – Johnny Cash worked just as well as The Violent Femmes, The Beatles, or The Velvet Underground. Finally, sprinkle the whole thing with whatever acoustic tracks your favorite bands had decided to throw at the end of their albums. Green Day’s “FOD”, Alkaline Trio’s “Blue in the Face”, and NOFX’s “Scavenger Type” were prime examples.
Fast forward to now. Making those mixes has gotten a lot easier. As fans of many of those bands have grown up and slowed down, so have many of the bands themselves. It seems that the logical next step of a punk rock front man is to lock themselves up in a room with an acoustic guitar and get more “personal.” For some, this has worked out well. Guys like Chuck Ragan (Hot Water Music), Dustin Kensrue (Thrice), Tim Barry (Avail), and Kevin Seconds (7 Seconds) have put out some stellar solo music over the past few years. Other guys haven’t been as fortunate. Greg Gaffin (Bad Religion), one of the greatest songwriters of all time, couldn’t get it done on his own. Mike Herrera’s (MxPx) Tumbledown project turned out to be Social Distorion lite, but even worse. Next in line is No Use For a Name front man Tony Sly, whose full-length solo output 12 Song Program was recently released via (you guessed it) Fat Wreck Chords.
On his first solo offering, a 2004 split with Lagwagon’s Joey Cape in which the two singers recorded alternative versions of their own band's fan favorites, fans of NUFAN’s signature (ok Bad Religion meets Face to Face) slick, catchy skate punk anthems were treated to catchy sing-a-longs that may have been built for Warped Tour stages and skate parks, but translated surprising well to an acoustic setting.
Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for 12 Song Program. Over 12 tracks, Sly presents the listener with a scattering of ideas weighed down with cheesy lyrics (“There’s a hole in my mind / where the sun used to shine / memories in black and white"), lazy songwriting, and forced melodies. The album doesn’t offer a “decent” track until the fourth song – a short acoustic number by the name of “Already Won.”
Sonically, 12 Song Program doesn’t stray too far on any song; offering up simple acoustic guitar strums, layered vocals and the occasional drum track, keyboard, or backing vocals. In fact, the more Sly adds to the track, the more interesting things tend to get. Arming yourself with only your voice and an acoustic guitar doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for mistakes, and in this case Sly doesn’t have the chops to make it work all on his own, leaving the purely acoustic tracks wide open often sounding forced, unfinished, or sloppily put together.
Wisely, Sly seems to figure out about halfway through the album that sometimes it’s ok to embellish your songs a little bit. On “AM”, an ambient keyboard riff lends an emotion that Sly’s songwriting can’t seem to give off on its own. The backing female vocals on the second half of “Expired” make suffering through the first half of the track almost worth it. “Toaster in the Bathtub”, the only song with electric guitar, also happens to be one of the better tracks.
If you never actually hear 12 Song Program you won’t be missing out. Fans of No Use for a Name will be disappointed and those looking for great acoustic music should look elsewhere, either to some of the names mentioned above or some of "the professionals" like Jason Mraz or Dashboard Confessional.
--Scott Barrett
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